Murder Game (GhostWalkers #7)(50)
Author: Christine Feehan

Kadan pulled himself to the top of the fence, changing skin color to match the surroundings as he took a quick look before he vaulted the double chain-link fences holding the dogs. He landed in a crouch, waited a heartbeat, and then began moving through the dense shrubbery, relying on Nico to be his eyes as he crossed to the back of the garage.

“Coming at you, thirty yards. Two guards and they know what they’re doing.”

Mercs. Kadan’s lip curled as he sank down and went still. Fredrickson had blanketed the estate with mercenaries, and either Don and Sharon Meadows knew and approved, or they had gotten themselves into a mess they couldn’t handle, but it was fairly difficult to hide the kind of men guarding the estate. Kadan watched through narrowed eyes as the two men covered the ground fast. Every now and then their gazes touched on the dogs pacing in the fences. The men’s gazes shifted constantly, on the alert. Fredrickson definitely was expecting trouble.

One merc paused only a scant few feet from Kadan’s hip, talking into his radio. “Everything is quiet, Boss. The dogs aren’t showing signs of nerves.”

“Keep everyone alert,” a voice, probably Fredrickson’s, snapped.

The two men rounded the corner of the garage and were out of Kadan’s sight. He remained where he was, his breath moving through his lungs with a steady rhythm. A third man emerged from the garage, looked left and right, and then walked over to the chain-link fence to stare at the nearest dog. He muttered something, picked up a rock, and flung it through the open links. The rock hit the other side of the fence and the dog showed teeth. Kadan slipped the knife from his boot and waited.

“The son of a bitch is teasin’ the dog,” Gator complained, his voice a whisper in Kadan’s ear. “Can Nico put a bullet in the bastard’s head?”

“No,” Kadan hissed firmly and eased his body out of the brush, his gaze on the man who now jabbed at the dog with a long stick. “We need complete silence.”

“You kill him, Kadan, and our surprise is gone. I’ll take him out after you get Fredrickson,” Nico said, his voice cool and confident.

Kadan cursed under his breath. He wanted to do the bastard. He detested men who preyed on anything or anyone who couldn’t fight back. Looking at the dog, with its snarl and bared teeth, he realized the dog just needed one moment for revenge. It was obvious this man tormented the dog on a regular basis.

Another time, buddy, he promised and sent the dog a silent apology before he began to inch his way across the yard. He was running out of time. The moment the guards moved their sweep to the other side of the estate, they’d be activating the lasers.

Nico whispered in his ear, letting him know when to move and when to be still. He made it to the edge of the shrubbery at the far side of the house, but it took several minutes of painstaking progress before he was clear of the laser field.

Kadan moved into the wide bed of flowers close to the house, looking up at his chosen point of entry. It was two stories up and Tansy’s bedroom window. On this side, there were no balconies, and she often left the window open a couple of inches because she needed to feel like freedom. Her hands, encased in gloves, always made her feel like a prisoner, and she would slide her hands out the window and wave them in the night air. If he was lucky, no one would have remembered to lock her window, as she’d been gone so long.

“Now,” Nico’s voice whispered in his ear.

Kadan leapt up as high as he could, going from a crouch to a full extension and reaching high above his head. His finger pads caught and held, gluing him to the side of the house. Again his skin tone changed, taking on the hue of his background. He began to move upward in silence. Fredrickson was a GhostWalker and their strongest opponent. He had the ability to sense their presence, and they had no idea of his psychic talents. He had to be neutralized before a rescue could take place.

At a soft go from Nico, Ryland moved into position, penetrating on the opposite side of the grounds, to get through the laser fields as the guards swept that area. When he made it through the yard and neared the house, he would hold at his location waiting for Kadan’s entry and the all clear, signaling Fredrickson was dead.

Kadan climbed to the window, anchored his body with one hand, and, as he carefully raised his body to peer over the sill, felt with the other for trip wires. His hearing was particularly acute, and he became aware of the faint hum that often accompanied a live wire. Fredrickson had not only known about the slightly raised window, he’d anticipated an entry and left it invitingly open that scant inch and a half, but had laid enough traps for ten mice.

“I’m going up, Nico. This is a trap.”

“Two men on the roof,” Nico reported. “One just above your position and one about ten feet to his right. Both look likes mercs. I can take them both, but Fredrickson will know.”

Kadan had already begun his descent. “No. I’ll get in.”

“I can rile up the dog. We’ve still got the bastard guard poking at him with a stick,” Gator offered. “Let me get the dog going and that will draw them to this side. Fredrickson will go on alert, but he’ll want to know what’s going on.”

“That’s a go.”

Kadan could use the diversion. If he was lucky, once Fredrickson knew his own guard had screwed up, he’d send someone personally to chew the man up. And that meant a door open. He just had to be in the right place at the right time. Moving with the speed and precision of a spider in a web, Kadan chose a door on the side of the house close to where the guard was teasing the dog. He went down the wall headfirst, much like a gecko might, held by the sticky pads on his fingers and his enormous strength until he was hovering just above the door, in plain sight on the side of the building.

Within minutes the German shepherd went crazy, slamming into the chain-link fence, roaring a challenge, snarling and barking, hitting the fence repeatedly in an attempt to get to his cruel handler. The yard erupted with guards, men running, calling out to one another, rushing toward the fence. One caught the guard with stick in hand, still tinged with blood where he’d driven it into the dog’s side. Lights burst on overhead, turning the grounds into daylight. Alarms shrieked as the lasers were set off.

Within a couple more minutes, enough time for the message to be relayed to Fredrickson, the door below Kadan burst open and a man went running out. Kadan swung his body through the opening, landing in a crouch inside, gun already out and tracking. From the drawings Tansy had provided, he knew this was an atrium that opened into the living room. Huge plants grew nearly wild, rising to the high ceilings, the mist kicking on automatically every few minutes to provide the atmosphere of a rain forest.